Abstract
In an emergency evacuation, people almost always come in close proximity as they quickly leave a built environment under a potential threat. With COVID19, this situation presents yet another challenge: that of getting unintentionally exposed to an infected individual. To assess the epidemiological consequences of an emergency evacuation, we expanded a popular pedestrian dynamic model to enable social distancing during a normal exit and analyze the effect of possible transmission through respiratory droplets and aerosol. Computer simulations point to a troubling outcome, whereby the benefits of a quick exit could be outweighed by the risk of infection.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 631264 |
Journal | Frontiers in Physics |
Volume | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 1 2021 |
Keywords
- COVID19
- aerosol
- crowds
- evacuation
- proximity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biophysics
- Materials Science (miscellaneous)
- Mathematical Physics
- General Physics and Astronomy
- Physical and Theoretical Chemistry